


Coming Together

by hafren



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-26
Updated: 2009-11-26
Packaged: 2017-10-03 18:40:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hafren/pseuds/hafren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vila and Cally make common cause with the moondisks</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Together

"Bek, that button burns the president's garden. It won't hurt him much but it'll sting a bit."

The young man stretched his hand out over the button.

A shiver crossed Cally's face. Instinctively she reached out and touched her moondisk. The tremor seemed to pass from her hand into the creature beneath it. A long way off, a landscape covered in translucence began to murmur and vibrate.

_You know there is danger. You don't know what it is, or where it comes from. But it convulses you, makes you move toward your fellows. Together... all must come together. Together is safety. Or at least not dying alone._

Bek pressed the button.  
***

They were on their way back to Space City, or at least as close to it as they had to go in order to teleport Bek. Blake, on the flight deck, was talking enthusiastically to him about all the things he could do to help the revolution, once he was there. To Vila, glancing across from the console, all the enthusiasm seemed to be on one side, but he dared not look for long. He was on permanent watch because Blake had nowhere near finished being angry with him yet.

Cally's voice came over the commlink. "Vila, can you come to the teleport?"

He was dying to get off the flight deck and away from disapproving eyes, but he looked warily at Blake for permission.

"Why do you need Vila, Cally?" Blake asked.

"One of the bracelets is stuck. I need someone with clever fingers."

Blake nodded at him. "Go on, then. I'll take the watch until you get back. Don't use it as an excuse to skive."

Vila made for the teleport, his feeling of relief almost outweighed by curiosity. He was no telepath, but he had a good ear for nervousness and he knew a lie when he heard one. Maybe Cally just felt sorry for him and wanted to get him off the hook for a while.

At the door he stopped dead. Cally was staring helplessly at a floor covered wall to wall with moondisks. Their quiet, oddly soothing murmur filled the room.

"It brought me here," she said, nodding at her own, which she had put, still in its sandpit, amongst the others. "I just felt as if something were calling to me... thinking at me. And they were all here."

He shook his head, baffled. "How did they get here? Did yours bring them, too?"

"I don't know. I think so. They have this affinity... maybe it knew they were in danger. Called them." She churned her hand through her hair. "Vila, what am I going to do? If Blake finds them he will destroy them, or let Bek do it. I can't let him, not now."

"No. No, I can see that. Anything that knows how to run away from death deserves to live. But Blake'll see that, surely?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. He sees them as plants – ones that can harm humans, at that. And Federation tools. And as for Bek, he just wants revenge. It isn't their fault, Vila. They have no say in how people use them."

"I know how they feel."

"I have to get them somewhere they'll be safe, and no-one can misuse them again. Some planet without any people, for preference. I just don't know how."

"Well, we can think about that later. Right now, we have to hide them. Not the hold; anyone could go in there. One of the empty rooms, maybe - no, it's Sod's Law; someone always takes a notion to go exploring just when you've got something to hide. And if I put a thief-proof lock on an unused room, ten to one Avon'll find it, and give me no peace until he knows what's in there. It'll have to be our cabins. Er... does anyone go in yours, apart from you?" He was slightly embarrassed by the question, but she did not flush.

"No," she said quietly, "no-one at all."

"Mine neither," he said. "Half each, then. Do you think they'll be willing to split up, if they know it's for their own safety?"

She thought about it, then picked up the moondisk-in-a-tray. "Try stroking it and talking to it," she suggested, "it seems to be able to communicate to the rest.

He did, feeling a total fool. "Look, mate, it's all right. We just want to hide you till we can get you somewhere safe, so tell the others, eh? " He stroked the smooth surface; it glowed and vibrated gently. "Hey, I think it likes me. Are they going to need sand or soil or anything like that?"

"I don't think so. They can live on bare rock, as long as they have company." She smiled at him. "Thank you."

He smiled back, and asked curiously "Why me?"

"Well," she said, "Jenna wouldn't think they were worth giving Blake an argument about. Avon would, but only if he could have them to experiment on, and Gan-"

"-couldn't tell Blake a convincing lie to save his life," he finished for her. "Yeah, that makes sense. C'mon then, let's get them stashed. I hope the little buggers don't breed."

***

_You are together, in two different places but you can sense the ones you cannot touch; you know they are safe. The other warm creature feeds them with sound and touch, as yours does you. Feelings come through the words and fingers of these beings: safe, protect, care, loved. They do not like to be alone, any more than you do; when in the dark you move and glow against their skin, you can feel them fill with contentment, hear their dreams change. Strange that they have, seemingly, none of this contact with each other._

***

Some weeks later, Cally and Vila were no further forward with the resettlement plan. Bek had left, but the opportunity had never arisen. No planet they had neared had been suitable, and there was still the problem of how they would manage it when one was. They took to visiting each other on watch, or in their cabins, to discuss it.

"What we really need," said Vila, stretching out on the bed, "is Blake to take the others down with him on some mission and leave us up here. Or at least Avon and Gan; if he leaves Jenna she'll be pottering around doing piloty things anyway."

They were both on the bed - Cally's - because it was the best way to avoid stepping on a moondisk. It wasn't very wide, but if she put her arm around him it was comfortable enough. Despite the worry of concealment, they were both feeling more relaxed and happy than they had in months. The constant background susurration of the moondisks gave them a sense of wellbeing that was as much physical as mental. It seemed to loosen muscles and unclench nerves. Vila hadn't had a drink for weeks, or felt the lack of it. Their sleep was untroubled and left them with a vague feeling of having dreamed something pleasant. Above all, there was a sense of companionship; they never felt alone any more.

In their cabins this sense of unearned peace and contentment was most acute, but even elsewhere on the ship they could feel it, like a difference in the quality of air or light. They sometimes felt that the others were bickering less; even Avon could hardly keep the smile out of his eyes as he insulted them, or argued with Blake. Cally wondered if the high that the drug users sought at such cost from Shadow could have been gained all along from just being near the unprocessed, living creatures who produced it. She said as much to Vila.

"Yeah, nice plan," he agreed, "but it'll never happen, 'cos it wouldn't make enough money for the sort of bastard who sells that stuff. They're better off away from people - most people, anyway. You and I'd be all right with them, but then we're different. Pity though. I'll miss them, if we ever get shot of them. Maybe we don't need to. We've got away with it so far."

Cally smiled and ruffled his hair. "Only just. I've had some comments from Jenna about looking unusually happy – "the cat that got the cream", I think the phrase was. The cream being you, I suspect; she'd noticed you coming out of here once."

Vila looked alarmed. "Shit. I got a remark from Avon, last time I went to see you on watch, about being unduly devoted to work, but it never crossed my mind any of them might be thinking you and me... I was careless; I'm really sorry."

"Hey." She laid a finger on his lips. "If they choose to think that, I can't say it worries me. I may not feel that way about you, but if I did, it would be nothing to be ashamed of." She hugged him gently, noting absently that the glow of his face almost equalled the moondisks.

***

In the end, it was just pure luck. Getting the message from Rashel while they were still within teleport range of a planet with a suitable atmosphere, inhabited by two utterly peaceful and unspoilt beings, and which the ungodly had the best possible reason to avoid. And Blake, Avon and Gan busy cleaning up after the mission... As soon as Vila got the message he went to Cally's cabin.

"There'll never be a better time. Trust me. Jenna's busy at the controls, Gan's gone for a rest and the others won't be out of that bathroom for an hour if we're lucky. I'll go and get my lot and meet you in the teleport."

Reluctantly she sent her pet moondisk with its kin. It didn't seem fair not to.

_You do not lose any of yourself any more. Here, no-one comes to take away parts of the whole, sounds from the music. You are complete and together, you live the full stretch of your lives as they were meant to be. There are new creatures, like the others; you sense their happiness and wholeness, their delight in you and in each other. They have become part of your music, companions for your life._

_Now and then, you miss the sound and feel of those others._

***

The level of sniping and discontent on board the Liberator escalated fairly rapidly. After a week of prescribing for Blake's headaches and Avon's back, Cally came on Vila, who'd been keeping out of her way. He was complaining of stomach cramps and burgling the liquor supply.


End file.
